Method of attaching lips to dredge-buckets



'1. J. RA'TTIGAN. 4 METHOD .OF ATTACHING, LIPS T0 DREDGE BUCKETS.

" APPLICATION FILED MAY 24; m9.-

1,;37?,9f25. Patent ed 'May 10,1921.

INVENTOR.

ATTORJ'EK f r. r "77': vr til ii rat-as JOHN J. RATTIGAN, OF HOMESTEAD, PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

ratemea May an, 1921..

Application filed May 24, 1919. Serial No. 299,42.

T 0 all to 7mm it may concern Be it known that 1, J OHN J. RATTIGAN, a

citizen of the United States of America, re-' of repairing the wearing-lips of manganese. steel buckets and particularly such buckets as used on sand dredges, and furnishes the means of extending the life of such dredge buckets almost indefinitely. Another object of the present invention is to provide a dredge bucket having the parts which re ceive the wear by contact with a hard gritty material such as sand, and also the parts which resist the shock when the buckets encounter'boulders or rocks concealed in the sand, made of manganese steel, while the body section of the bucket which does not receive such severe treatment in service, is constructedof ordinary cast or alloyed steel. The cost of manufacture of the buckets can be in this way very greatly reduced while their efliciency is maintained. These and other features of the present invention will be more'fully explained as thedescriptmn proceeds hereinafter in this specification.

In the accompanying drawings formmg part of this specification, 1 have shown one complete example-of my invention and some modifications thereof, constructed according to the best mode I have so far devised for the practical application of the principles of my invention.

Figure 1 is a central vertical section through a dredge-bucket. V

Fig. 2 is a face view of the rear portion of a bucket taken in the direction of the arrows 2-2 of Fig. 1. r

Fig. 3 is a plan View on line 3'3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4.- is a side elevation of an apparatus devised for use in carrying out my invention. a

Fig. 5 is a plan view of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a plan View of a templet, and holding means used.

Fig. 7 is a transverse vertical section on line 77 of Fig. 6. I

Fig. 8 is a vertical section on line 8 8 of Fi 6. i

Fig. 9 is a plan view of a portion of a bucket showing some rivet holes formed therein.

Fig. 10 is a diagrammatic elevational View of a dredge-bucket conveyer, in operative position on a sand dredge.

The numeral 1 indicates a portion of a sand-dredge boat, on which is ordinarily mounted a spider or hexagonal drum 2, an endless conveyer chain 3, and a second spider l, as shown in Fig. 10. On the conveyer chain 3 are attached the buckets 5, 6, etc. The spider 2 is operated by power within the ship or sand-dredge 1, to manipulate the bucketsfi, 6, etc.,. and thereby re move sand from the river bed 7 as is readily understood, this type of sand-dredge or boat being much used on some of the large rivers 1n recovermg sand from the river bed for building and other purposes. As

sand is of a very gritty and hard nature the buckets 5, 6 can only be made of extremely hard material to withstand the grinding wear, and in the present state of the art,

manganese steel has been found'to be prac-' tically the only useful material for this purpose, when considered from a commerclal as well as a mechanical point of view. The

manganese buckets 8 Fig. 1 are formed usually with an upwardly projecting lip 9 cast integral with the body of the bucket, so that this lip 9 takes most of the wear caused by contact with the sand bed 7 in digging. But even with manganese steel those lips 9 soon wear down even with, or below the edges 10 of the bucket, and the whole bucket 8 has to be scrapped or thrown away, as it is not desirable at the present time either from acommercial or practical view point, to reuse these buckets, first, because oi the difficulty in cutting the extremely hard manganese steel and secondly, as rivet holescannot be punched throughsaid steel, in order to attach new lip portions, as might ordinarily be done were the buckets of any ordinary cast or alloyed steel. Moreover, these worn manganese buckets cannot be remelted and cast over into new buckets, because the present refractories used for furnace linings will not withstand the treatment from a chemical point of view. So that, as before stated, these worn manganese buckets are entirely discarded as soon as their lip portions 9 are worn down below approximately the edge level 10. l ihen it is stated, by way of illustration, that these manganese buckets average in price, approximately twenty-five cents a pound, as against a cost of say four to six cents a pound for ordinary cast or plate steel; and that these buckets average from four hundred and fifty to six hundred pounds each; the importance of being able to re-use these manganese discarded buckets is at once seen to approach a matter of great moment in this particular art.

Again with the above facts in mind, it is seen that if any parts of these expensive buckets can be made of less expensive material without lessening their efficiency as a whole, that improvements in the matter of construction, is also very desirable. Both of these objects are attained by my invention as described herein. My method of repairing these manganese buckets, will be first described, The ordinary manganese bucket is usually of a single casting, provided with integral lugs similar to 11, Fig. 3, the latter being mounted on the endless chain 3. In this case the lugs 11, the body portion 12, and the lip portion 13, are all cast in one piece. By my method of repair 'ing these buckets I stand the bucket on its end as in Figs. 4 and 5, and secure it by means of the metal housing or stand 14, and cross-bar 15, the stand 14 being rigidly secured to the foundation 16. The stand 14 has a top bar 40 which preferably is machined on its outer surfaces, and carries a slidable metalcollar or casing 17 on which is rotatably mounted at 18 an oxy-actylene torch 19, having the usual supply of gas and oxygen furnished thereto, and also the outting or burning tip 20. As shown in Fig, 5,

as the bucket 8 is securely heldby 15, and its attachments, and the slidable casing 17 can be reciprocated along bar 40, and also the torch 19 rotated about point 18, so that the lip portion 13 of the bucket can be out along the line 21 in practically a straight line, a performance not readily attainable otherwise, on account of the uncertainty of the oxy-acetylene flame when hand operated. This is practically necessary in order to have a straight edge at 21, Fig. 1, so that a butt and lap joint can be made by the new lip 13 about to be attached to the body portion 12. The lip 13 is cast of manganese steel with a number of rivet holes at 22, 23, etc., and in order to form complementary rivet holes in the body portion 12 of the old bucket, a templet 24 having the proper rivet spacingis mounted on the bar'40, the slidable casing 17 being moved to permit the templet to beplaced in proper position over the bucket. The templet 24 has a number of tubular collars 25 preferably lined at 26 with a refractory material, so as to protect the material of'the bucket at 27 as much as possible when an oxy-acetylene torch tip 28 is introduced into collars 25 for burning the holes. 29 through the bucket material 30.

tool 32 is inserted in the collar 25, and the hole 29 reamed to as nearly a perfect circle as possible. It is essential in this connection that the reaming be performed while the metal 30 is still in a heated condition, because otherwise the hard manganese steel cannot be out by an ordinary reamer. As soon as all the holes necessary have been made in the body portion 12, both on the sides 33 and bottom 34, the newly cast manganese lip 13, having a shoulder at 21, and an extension at 35, to form the necessary lap, is applied to the body portion 12, and riveted fast in the ordinary way. It is noted that the lip 12 is usually cast with the holes 2223, countersunk on the exterior, so that the rivet heads do not project into the sand when the buckets are in operation. The lip 13 is usually of thicker material in cross section than the bucket body (see Fig. 1) on account of receiving practically all the wear contact with the sand in digging or excavating.

WVith reference to the last stated matter it is seen that a great deal of wear is also carried to the joints 36, 37 of the links 11, and for this reason these links are in my invention made ofmanganese steel, as well as the, lip 13, and in practice, even these manganese links soon wear and have elongated holes at 36, 37. It is noted that this is also important in that when the links elongate materially they cannot pass over the spiders 2 and 3, Fig. 10, properly. But it is also seen that the body portion 12, comprising the two end walls 33, the rear wall 38 and part of the bottom 34, receivespractically .very little wear and consequently I make this portion of ordinary cast or plate steel which can be made so much cheaper than the manganese steel portions, as before explained, that the cost of these ordinarily expensive buckets is reduced to less than half of the usual all-manganese bucket. It is seen that the links 11 have flanges 39 and are riveted to the body portion 12 as shown. The bimetal bucket just described, it is seen, can be readily provided with a new wearing lip 13, by simply removing and replacing the rivets in the holes 22, 23, etc., as is commonly done with other buckets at the present time. p

From the above it will be seen that I have devised a new method of attaching mangalatter can be re-used almost indefinitely and the effect of which is practically revolutionary in this particular art; and secondly, I have provided in an article of manufacture, a new type of bi-metal bucket having the wearing portions of extremely hard material adapted to withstand severe service, and having the remaining portion of said. bucket constructed of comparatively softer and less durable material without detracting from the efficiency and utility of the dredge bucket as a whole.

l/Vhat I claim is 1. A method of attaching lips to dredgebuckets which consists in first removing the worn lip portion of said buckets and piercing holes in the edge of the bucket adjacent to the line of severance, reaming said holes while the material is in a heated condition, and then riveting a new lip portion on said bucket.

2. A method of attaching new lips to worn manganese dredge buckets which consists in first removing the worn lip portion of said bucket and piercing rivet holes in the edge of the bucket adjacent to the line of severance by using an oXy-acetylene tool in conjunction with means for maintaining the alinement of said tool in the cutting and piercing operations; and then riveting a cutting-lip portion on said bucket.

3. Amethod of repairing worn manganese dredge-buckets which consists in cutting away the worn lip portion by using an oxyacetylene torch, rotatably mounted on a reciprocating means for holding said torch in proper alinement during the cutting operation; piercing rivet holes in the edge of said buckets with said torch, while same is held in proper position by a spacing and direction means; reaming said rivet holes while the bucket material is in a heated condition, with a reaming tool held in proper position by the aforesaid spacing means; and then riveting a cutting-lip portion on said bucket.

41:. A method of repairing worn manganese dredge-buckets, which consists in cutting away the Worn lip portion with an oXyacetylene torch rotatably and reciprocally mounted on a lineal alining stand; piercing rivet holes in said bucket with said torch used in conjunction with a spacing means having a collar adapted to control the size and direction of the torch flame; reaming said rivet holes while the bucket material is in a heated condition, and then attaching a cutting-lip portion on said dredge-bucket.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

JOHN J. RATTIGAN.

Witnesses:

L. E. GArrrnnn, WILLIAM A. Hm'rne. 

